New nail tool gives a 5-minute gel manicure that looks amazing

As any busy mom knows, the secret to nails that actually look good all week long is a little thing we like to call the gel manicure. Beautiful, long-lasting and quick-drying, the gel manicure is the only way to fly when you work with your hands and can’t afford to wait for hours. Sadly, it also requires both an hour in the salon every two weeks and about $50 a pop. Now, thanks to Le Mini Macaron, that’s not true.

Le Mini Macaron looks like a French cookie, plugs into your computer and allows for what is usually an hour-long treatment to become a five-minute treatment. And it really works.

I’ll admit when the little package arrived in the mail from the company, I was skeptical. I have been getting gel manis every two weeks for as long as I can remember. I found it highly unlikely that I would be able to reproduce the look at home with just a teeny tiny lamp and a bottle of polish. But I opened it anyway. I was shocked by what I found.

First I pushed back my cuticles, then swiped on the polish. Then I cured it:

I did this with two coats of polish on each hand. The polish came out smooth and perfect, just like in the salon. Even better? It really did only take around five minutes for each coat, 10 minutes altogether. And it was dry right away. Here is the result:

Pros: Goes on fast with a professional finish; requires far less time than in the salon; dries immediately.

Cons: Very few colors are available.

That’s the only downside! And I didn’t remove it yet, so I am not sure how that works, but overall, this little Kickstarter program is one of the best I’ve seen. I predict a major trend and I am so psyched I got the chance to try it first.